Vodafone takes M-Pesa service to the North – East with ICICI Bank

After expanding its M-Pesa service in East India, Rajasthan, Maharashtra etc, recently Vodafone has expanded the service to Assam and other North Eastern states as well.

Commenting over the launch of the service in the region, Operations Director (East) Bjas Murthy said the introduction of the service in the region will allow the unbanked and underbanked sections of the population to have an access to financial services via mobile phone.

The service will be available in 350 towns, 130 Tehsils and 40 districts with more than 1,200 specially trained authorised agents across 91 Vodafone exclusive retail and mini stores in Assam and the Northeast region.

Explaining the need of M-Pesa service in the region, Pushpinder Singh Gujral, Business Head-in Assam and North East, said, “M-Pesa’ is a safe, secure and convenient service to transfer money and make payments beyond the reach of traditional banking channels. For households where the earning members migrate to larger cities, ‘M-Pesa’ will be the best way to send money back home.

M-pesa account allows customers to make a variety of transactions including cash deposits, transferring money to any bank account, transferring money to any other ‘M-Pesa’ customer, recharge mobiles and DTH connections, pay mobile and utility bills and more. The company charges INR 10 per transaction as convenience fee for payment of utilities.

After announcing the service in November 2011, Vodafone launched it in April this year.

M-Pesa service is currently available in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, West Bengal, UP East, UP West, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Goa. The company plans to introduce the service across the country.

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